Some vulnerable Democratic senators running in red states are finding it hard to run on the issues being pushed by national party leaders like the minimum wage increase and the “war on women.” So they’ve taken the attitude that if you can’t beat ‘em — join ‘em. They are adopting some Republican positions on the issues in a desperate effort to stave off disaster.

Senator Mark Pryor, one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents, is opposed to one of the party’s centerpiece legislative goals: the minimum-wage hike. Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Begich of Alaska both favor increased oil and natural gas drilling. All of these Democratic senators have been highly critical of Obamacare, but have stopped short of advocating repeal. To do so would lead to a cutoff in support from the national party.

But who’s to say what will happen before the election?

Supporting Obamacare or not, most of these vulnerable Democrats are rejecting the agenda being put forth by the national party, eschewing the issues designed to appeal to a narrow segment of the Democratic base in order to goose turnout in November.

Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said that those are measures that would have their greatest impact on young people, unmarried women, Latinos and African-Americans — all of whom can be difficult to turn out in years when there is no presidential election.

“This doesn’t replace a broader economic message. In the long run, we have to do that. But in the short run, this is very helpful,” said Lake, who has warned that the Democrats face a large turnout disadvantage in a year when Republican voters appear to be more motivated.

GOP pollster Neil Newhouse said the Senate Democrats’ targeted strategy echoes that of Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, where he emphasized a number of “niche group” issues such as the Dream Act, mandatory contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act, student loan expansion and support for same-sex marriage.

“This is all about turnout. They’re not doing this to win swing voters,” Newhouse said.”They’ve got to do this. Otherwise, they’re totally doomed.”

While endangered Democrats support the measures, they also appear skeptical that those issues will be the ones that carry the day in their home states, many of which lean Republican.

“Raising the minimum wage I think is the right thing; it’s an important thing to do,” said Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who is battling for reelection. “But the real goal should be to create thousands of jobs in Louisiana that pay between $50,000 and $100,000.”

Indeed, she said that she plans to be more focused on her support for policies that put her at odds with some in her party, such as increased domestic drilling and energy production.

“I’m not going to spend all my time talking just about the minimum wage,” Landrieu said,”because as chair of the energy committee, I want to focus on creating more jobs that pay 60-70-80-100 thousand dollars a year.”

Her views are shared by other vulnerable Democrats in conservative states, such as Sens. Mark Pryor (Ark.), who is publicly opposed to his party’s minimum wage proposal, and Mark Begich (Alaska), who has joined Landrieu in pushing for more drilling.

Among the other measures the Democrats have promised: a proposal to make college more affordable; to make it more difficult to cut Medicare benefits or boost the eligibility age; to discourage businesses from offshoring; to lower the cost of child care, and to put more money into infrastructure.

If Pryor and the rest of them talk up most of these issues, they will get creamed. They are going to have their hands full defending their Obamacare vote to begin with, and will also be forced to defend an economy that is vastly underperforming.

And they will be running fast and furiously away from President Obama — a hard thing to do when the leader of your party is the president of the United States.

The bottom line is that the more Republican they sound, the better chance they have of keeping their jobs.

Events will prove me right or wrong but I believe we've reached that magical tipping point where ALL Americans--including the Dems' sacred cows--are more concerned with unemployment, inflation and healthcare collapse to be manipulated by the usual petty, targeted issues.

Unless you've got a vault full of gold on some fortified private island somewhere it doesn't matter whether you are or are not a loyal Dem Party voter...Cloward-Piven is gonna' stomp all over YOU, too. King Barry is not going to be there to sweep you off to Big Rock Candy Mountain when it all comes down.

this story seems to confirm what Rush and others have said in the past. Dems can't win on their ideas, so they lie and deceive to get elected, and then the voters seem to get collective amnesia and do it again in the next election cycle.

Time to stop the nonsense of saying you want change but repeating the same old, same old, from the past.

I think that the elections this year are going to be about turnout for the Republicans. As most people, I think too, that the Dems will have a difficult time THIS year and that the key will be to storm the elections with conservative voters. THEN, if Hilary or Jeb Bush (God forbid) are elected, there will be veto override strength in both the house and senate.I don't think the conservative base will much give a damn of the 2016 elections if those firewalls are erected in 2014. I firmly believe that the day of the "executive order" are over. But, we'll wait and see. As for myself, I will vote for very conservative candidates this year and if the presidential elections bring a "moderate" Republican candidate to be voted on, I'll stay home.

So, genius, you'd be willing to cede the entire Executive Branch and all the judicial appointments for another four or eight years just so you could be "pure?" That is insane. Hasn't the Obama Administration shown you where the real power in government is? Flash: It ain't in Congress! You'd have to have a veto proof majority of both bodies to pass a concessionary budget over a Democrat President's objections. Only the most optimistic give the Republicans much chance of having more than a bare majority of the Senate.

If the Democrats hold the WH, any likely Republican control of Congress just means we play the government shutdown game over and over with another Democrat President and the public hates Republicans more and more every time.

A Republican President CAN, I emphasize can, control even a Democrat Senate if he, unlike GWB, is willing to aggressively use the veto. Bringing "free stuff" to the home state is important to Democrats and vetoing any budget that has Democrat free stuff in it unless you get some Republican objectives too will work. There'll be starving grannies, bazillions of homeless, millions of kids on milk cartons and all the other crap that Democrats and their lapdog media can dish out, but you can get what you need with the veto; Reagan used it over and over, and while the price was giving the Ds things they wanted, he got things the Nation needed.

Stupid Republican leadership in the GWB years allowed the Ds everything they wanted and stood idly by as the Ds trashed the Presidency and the Republican Party. I'll never forgive GWB for not taking a meat cleaver to any budget that had Democrat goodies in it until they sheathed their swords.

I am with you hook, line & sinker on the don't-stay-home on election day thing but you must admit that in the current era only squishy moderates are electable for POTUS. People want their stuff. For. "Free." Period. Any talk of shrinking the sacred cows (Medicaid, Medicare, SS, WIC, etc.) is political suicide with this electorate in that the votes will not roll in.

Wiggy111, if you think most Rs vote like Ds, see a recent Ann Coulter column on what Mitch McConnell has done to fight unconstitutional campaign finance laws, herd ALL Senate Rs into voting AGAINST Obamacare (try pulling that off in any state legislature, much less the U.S. Senate), & tricking Obama into accepting the only cuts in the federal govt in more than half a century. Here's the link:

That is a lie, pure and simple. With Democrat control of the Senate and the WH, there is little the Republican House can do except shut down the government and get slaughtered in public opinion. Enlighten us, genius; tell us how you'd pass a small government budget or eliminate a program or department if the Senate and the WH oppose it.

Mark Begich learned well from his mentor and predecessor as Anchorage Mayor, Tony Knowles, to talk more like a Republican than do most Alaska Republicans, at least more so than most Anchorage Republicans. When Knowles ran against Lisa Murkowski in 2004, a front-rank Republican challenged her in the Primary to make her run right so that Knowles couldn't run to the right of her in the General.

Of course if you know anything about politics you know that a Knowles or a Begich isn't going to do anything that isn't in line with greenie, union, and basic lefty dogma, but they way they escape votes or positions on lethal issues is to do nothing and not allow the issue to come to the fore or the vote to take place. We who play or closely observe the game know that Reid would let Begich off the hook on a vote over ANWR or Offshore Arctic development or some such issue where Alaska's interest is diametrically opposed to the positions of the major D constituencies in the public employee unions, the greenies, and the ideological left; we know that he cast his vote against Alaska when he ran as a Democrat and joined the D Caucus in the Senate. No other vote he might or might not cast or bill he might offer counts after that. Unfortunately, the low information voter upon whom Democrats depend for election doesn't understand or care about such things and they think Begich is a nice, true Alaskan, conservative guy.

The big problem we face in unseating Begich is the one we failed to deal with which allowed Knowles to be elected and re-elected Governor; we have bitter factional and personal infighting inside the Republican Party here and we have three candidates where we should have only one by now. Sarah Palin's sock puppet, Joe Miller cannot win a Statewide General Election for any office, but he's the darling of the Palin fans and they're in alliance with a lot of Ron Paul types, which we have behind every rock and tree here. Mead Treadwell, the current Lt. Governor, is the Alaska mainstream Republican candidate. Dan Sullivan, not Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan, is a former DC type that Palin brought here as her AG and who Parnell has kept but as Commissioner of Natural Resources rather than AG. Sullivan has used his DC connections to garner a lot of money and SuperPAC support, but is barely even a legal resident of the State and most of his name ID is actually Mayor Dan Sullivan's name ID. Either Treadwell or Sullivan could beat Begich, probably fairly handily, but not if he is battered, bloody, and broke from a nasty Primary. Miller can make it nasty and if the Paultards aren't too stoned to remember that there's an election and turn out, might even win the Republican nomination. But, he can't stop being Joe Miller, so Begich will hand him his head and get his six more years.

So you've caught on to the act by both sides too eh? When the dems are out of power they become the fiscally responsible loudmouths - and when the repubs are out of power they carp about the dems not being fiscally responsible. Its the game they all play - with few exceptions - much too few.

Be fun to ask Pryor or Mary Landreau in neighboring Louisiana if they stand with another pol from a neighboring state, Wendy Davis. She's pretty much made her campaign for governor of Texas about nothing but the "War of Women" (which may be the decision of Davis' out-of-state handlers, who more than likely -- even if Wendy's not smart enough to realize it -- are simply using her 2014 campaign as an effort to pry some Texas women away from the Republican Party for the fight they're really preparing for, Greg Abbott vs. San Antonio mayor Julian Castro in 2018).

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